• 6 months ago
Transcript
00:00Hey guys, so when I first came to Japan within a day or so of arriving I was in a martial
00:11arts dojo training with some guys and it was summer and it was really hot and we stopped
00:16for a break and everyone was drinking water and almost all of them pulled out a fan similar
00:21to this one.
00:22A couple of them had folding fans that folded out but the majority had fans like this one
00:26and they all pulled out their fans and they were all sitting there fanning themselves
00:29like this right.
00:31Coming from Australia where we also have very hot weather, I've never once in Australia
00:36seen anybody, male or female, fanning themselves with a fan like this.
00:42Various maybe little electric fans or usually nothing.
00:47Usually nothing in summer.
00:48Everybody just goes oh it's hot you know.
00:51Didn't see anybody fanning themselves like this right so at first it was a bit of a surprise.
00:55I was a bit taken aback.
00:56I was like whoa, what's the deal with the fans?
01:01However after a few summers in Japan I soon became a fan of the fan because it does help.
01:11It really does help to give a bit of wind over yourself particularly when you're hot
01:15and sweaty because of course as you make a little bit of wind over yourself like that
01:18it evaporates the water and the sweat and helps cool you off right.
01:23So it's very effective.
01:24It does work.
01:26And then once you start doing it pretty well everywhere you go you sort of have a fan in
01:31your back pocket because as well as being good for fanning yourself they're also good
01:37for fanning other things as well.
01:39So in Japan quite often at barbecues everybody has a fan and they'll use the fan to get the
01:44fire going.
01:45You know stoke the fire, pump the fire a bit with the fan or they'll stick them in the
01:51window of their car while they're driving along if the sun's coming in the window on
01:56them they'll stick the fan up into the window frame so the fan sits there beside them like
02:01that and blocks the sun.
02:05It's just a really handy little thing that everybody seems to have.
02:09So some have the folding out fan.
02:11The majority have these.
02:13These are actually, this one's a good example.
02:17A lot of companies use these for marketing and they'll just give them away.
02:22So usually if you're at a festival quite often there'll be people there handing out fans
02:26like this and it will either be sponsored by some company that has their name on the
02:30back or some group like the group that's organized the festival or the city itself, they'll have
02:40the name of the city on there to promote the city.
02:42So it's sort of a promotional tool for whoever's wanting to promote something and they'll give
02:48them away.
02:49So sometimes they'll be standing outside the train station, a common one in winter they
02:53give away tissues, packets of tissues.
02:56In summer quite often they'll stand outside train stations and hand these out because
03:00almost everybody will accept one if they haven't got one already.
03:04So our house is full of these and we've got them all over the place and we've never bought
03:10one because you just get them.
03:13You get them when you go to festivals, you get them outside the train station, you sort
03:16of get handed them randomly all over the place.
03:20So they're a really useful thing.
03:23So if you come to Japan and haven't seen the fan thing before, and you come to Japan and
03:26you see people doing the fan thing, give it a go, give it a go, it's surprisingly good.
03:33The only catch is I've got to remember if I ever go back to Australia for a visit I've
03:37got to remember not to do this because it would turn heads in Oz for sure.
03:41Some guy sitting there doing this with his fan, what's that bloke doing, what's his story
03:47for sure.
03:50But in Japan I am a fan of the fan.
03:55This man in Japan is a fan of the fan.
03:59There it is.
04:02More videos coming soon.